By Richard John Stapleton
Numerous longstanding economic, social, political, and military issues are coming home to roost once again around Spaceship Earth. Earthian humans are caught between the proverbial rock and hard spot. The fly caught in the spider’s web entangles itself more and more as it struggles to free itself. Global warming and climate change (GWCC) and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP) hang over the heads of Earthian humans like clouds of doom. The Malthusian Concept may have been right after all.
Gail Tverberg had the following to say April 21, 2022 in the last two paragraphs of her article “The world has a major crude oil problem; expect conflict ahead,†in the blog OUR FINITE WORLD, at https://ourfiniteworld.com/2022/04/21/the-world-has-a-major-crude-oil-problem-expect-conflict-ahead/:
“Now we are running into a serious shortfall of crude oil. We can expect a new set of problems, including far more conflict. Wars are likely. Debt defaults are likely. Political parties will take increasingly divergent positions on how to work around current problems. News media will increasingly tell the narrative that their owners and advertisers want told, with little regard for the real situation.
“About all we can do is enjoy each day we have and try not to be disturbed by the increasing conflict around us. It becomes clear that many of us will not live as long or well as we previously expected, regardless of savings or supposed government programs. There is no real way to fix this issue, except perhaps to make religion and the possibility of life after death more of a focus.”
One can build a case based on Google-searched facts and information that a cause of the USian-NATO-Russian-Ukrainian War is that the USian deep state does not want Russian oil and gas to be sold in Europe because it would enrich the Russian economy and make Russia a more powerful global economic competitor; and the USian deep state is using Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia to shut off the flow of Russian oil and gas into European markets.
It’s depressing to think the USian-NATO-Russian-Ukrainian showdown might escalate into WWIII and nuclear war; but it’s also depressing to consider that if Earthian humans do not significantly reduce the fossil fuel they burn in coming years Global warming might cause the extinction of Earthian human life.
If Earthian humans increase the oil supply and burn it all to feed the growth of the Earthian economy in the next decade as much as possible as it now technologically functions they might render themselves extinct by raising global Earthian temperature past the tipping point. Conversely, Earthian humans will weaken the Earthian economy, decrease the Earthian production of goods and services, and probably lower the quality of human life by significantly cutting the production and burning of oil and gas in the next decade to reduce global warming.
It would seem the latter choice is the lesser evil.
One can build a case that Tverberg might be right in the last sentence of her second paragraph above about the need for a religion for most Earthian humans that promises eternal well-being and fulfillment after death if they cannot experience happiness and peace aboard Spaceship Earth during their infinitesimally-short natural lives.
Earthian humans have been told the narrative since WWII by USian politicians, generals, parents, teachers, preachers, writers, talk show hosts, lobbyists, public relations experts, advertising experts, and others employed in the USian education/information/propaganda/infotainment system that the US had no choice after WWII but to militarily contain and restrain Russia with NATO in Eastern Europe, and to bomb and/or invade North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and to undermine, bomb, and/or sanction numerous countries around Spaceship Earth, while establishing some eight hundred USian military bases in over one hundred countries around Spaceship Earth, to prevent the spread of atheistic communism and socialism.
Is this narrative still true? Was it ever true?
Usian army four-star general Wesley Clark dropped an information bombshell in his published memoirs that a senior general sitting at his desk in the Pentagon as Clark walked by his office in the hall during one of Clark’s visits to the Pentagon in 2001 two weeks after 9/11 called Clark into his office and showed him a “memo†outlining a USian military plan to “take out seven countries in five years,†which had nothing to do with containing or restraining atheistic communism or socialism. Read about this memo at https://www.salon.com/2007/10/12/wesley_clark/.
What this memo did have something to do with was oil. All seven countries on the list were oil producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and most of their governments have by now been “taken out†and replaced with new governments one way or the other. One of the governments on the list not “taken out†was the Syrian government. One can build a case the USian deep state tried to take out the Syrian government by fostering, supporting, and using a New Syrian Army proxy force ostensibly to fight Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorist groups in Syria, that would also serve as proxy fighters to take out Assad’s Syrian government; but it failed to take out Assad and his government because Russia militarily fought on their side. If this narrative is true, the USian deep state was also fighting Russia in Syria.
The USian deep state did not “win†wars by “taking out†the governments of most of the seven countries in the memo, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of Earthian humans in the process, but most likely it did gain more control over the Earthian oil supply than it otherwise would have had.
President Dwight Eisenhower, a USian five-star army general and supreme commander of allied forces during WWII, warned USians in his farewell address January 17, 1961 as he left office as USian president about the establishment of a USian “military-industrial complex.†Eisenhower said every dollar spent on the USian military could have been spent to alleviate poverty and suffering among civilians in the US. The USian government now spends more on its military than on anything else in the USian federal government discretionary budget, almost one trillion dollars per year, several times more per year than any other Earthian government spends on its military. Much of that money is funneled into the coffers of large USian private sector defense corporations to produce military weapons, equipment, and supplies. The USian economy is now the largest arms dealer around Spaceship Earth, generating revenues that increase USian GDP selling weapons, equipment, and services to customers in numerous countries around Spaceship Earth. Whether the USian deep state generates an accounting profit for ordinary USian taxpayers doing this is probably incalculable. Accountants have given up trying to audit the USian Pentagon.
What would a narrative say that explains why USian governments did what they did militarily after WWII? Doing what they did to contain communism is obviously not the full story. The USian deep state tried to constrain, restrain, and reduce Russia in Eastern Europe after Russia eliminated its communist government through internal political processes in 1991. The Russian government is now a fascist authoritarian oligarchy, using a capitalist economic system, supposedly holding democratic elections, loosely analogous to what exists in the US, that uses the traditional Russian Orthodox Christian Church as a tool to manipulate and control its middle and lower classes, much like authoritarian Russian czars did before the Russian Communist Revolution in 1917. Meanwhile Putin and his oligarch cronies have become some of the richest Earthian humans after taking ownership control of Russian assets that presumably belonged to the Russian people under communism.
The old USian deep state narrative that the USian military had to constrain and restrain Russia to prevent the spread of communism is now obsolete, since Russian governments got rid of communism and atheism themselves.
One can build a case all USian governments since WWII, dealing with matters of war and peace, with the possible exception of the government of John F. Kennedy during 1961-1963, who was assassinated before his first term ended, adhered to policies generated by the USian deep state; and the main reason USian governments did what they did militarily after WWII was to increase USian GNP and civilian and military employment, and to ensure necessary resources and raw materials would be available for the USian corporate deep state. Ensuring plenty of oil and gas at low prices would be available for the USian deep state had to have been high on the list of reasons explaining why the USian deep state did what it did militarily after WWII.
According to the standard USian deep state narrative about why and how John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he was shot by a lone insane USian gunman who had ties to Russia.
But the narrative based on the story that JFK was assassinated by a lone insane gunman is now out of date. The official US government narrative was written by the Warren Commission in 1963 and did state this position. Subsequent developments however changed this original official narrative, at least in the National Archives, if not in the minds of most USians. For the full story go to the National Archives JFK Assassination Records at https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-1 .
Here is now an updated narrative of the USian government regarding the JFK assassination, pursuant to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, according to the Assassination Records Review Board, at https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board :
“Findings
“The Committee believes on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.
“Go to the footnotes for this chapter.
- The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Soviet Government was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy
- The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Cuban Government was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy
- The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that anti-Castro Cuban groups, as groups, were not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual members may have been involved
- The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that the national syndicate of organized crime, as a group, was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual members may have been involved
I got involved in a discussion last week on my Facebook page about USians traveling around Spaceship Earth acting as if they are the only “Americans†inhabiting the American Continent, comprising North America, Central America, South America, and Caribbean Islands. I posted and shared a meme on Facebook that I saw on my Facebook newsfeed showing the American Continent on one side of the page and USian territory on the other. The USian land mass in the meme appeared to be about one-fifth of the total landmass of the American Continent. I wrote the following comment at the top of the shared meme: “But most Earthian humans living in the US think they are entitled to consider and refer to themselves as the only Americans, or at least the only Americans that count.â€
The post generated 13 likes, 19 comments, and 2 shares. Some of the comments generally agreed with my comment, but most of them ignored the logic of what I said; instead, they attacked my character in ad hominem illogical arguments, accusing me of being a socialist, communist, or liberal, deflecting attention from the point I tried to make about the attitudes of USian humans with respect to their actual social and geographic position on the American Continent. I responded with another comment in the thread of comments pointing out most of them had missed the point of my original comment. This prompted a new commenter to enter the discussion saying he had not missed the point of my original comment but he had “destroyed†it. He accused me of thinking I was morally and intellectually superior, which he said was not true, and he was not “having†it. He said I was a son of the failed liberal global world order. He said he was “Nation Firstâ€, and wore a Trumpian MAGA red cap in Canada. He said he loved telling his liberal Canadian friends how stupid they were. He said the US had kept sea lanes free for international trade and had contained six or so nuclear-armed countries, and was the only country on the American Continent that counted. I responded to him saying he was entitled to his opinion, telling him I did not agree, but so what? He then responded that he would have none of this, saying I should “take some responsibilityâ€, among other things. It seemed to me he was psychologically advocating violence of one kind or another. I deleted his second post from my Facebook page and temporarily blocked him from my page, thinking there was no way he would cease his arguing in the thread in an OK way. I unblocked him from my Facebook page two days later. He seemed to be an OK human.
This First Nation thinking and believing modus operandi in my opinion is one of the primary causes of dangerous polarizations around Spaceship Earth, and always has been. Nobody can prove his or her opinion about pychological, social, economic, and political states of affairs is absolute truth; but some humans, maybe over half the Earthian human population, believe fact and reason-based relative truth is irrelevant, believing rather what counts are memorized opinions, dogmas, doctrines, and slogans, that they and their kind believe, which they believe they have a right, perhaps duty, to impose on others, as if their dogmas and doctrines were absolute truth.
A poignant current case in point is USian right-wing states recently blocking abortions with new laws in their states in the US and then beseeching the stacked deck of biased and prejudiced authoritarian right-wing USian Supreme Court judges to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Supreme Court judge Alito in essence argued in writing for the majority 5-4 court, citing the due process clause, that since the USIAN Constitution does not mention abortions then technically the Supreme Court did not have a right to allow abortions throughout the US with Roe v. Wade in the first place. This argument seems specious and irrelevant to me but having a grain of technical logic, albeit not enough to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I disagree based on Alito’s reasoning that USian states should have a right to enact state laws that disallow abortions. Most likely their constitutions do not mention abortions either.
Abortions in my opinion should be legally treated like any other medical procedure. Should USian humans with no medical training have a right to enact state or federal laws allowing or disallowing any medical procedure they “feel†like allowing or disallowing? Are trained, qualified, and certified medical doctors less qualified to make decisions about abortions than medically unqualified biased and prejudiced right wing voters, politicians, and judges?
Should USian states or the federal government have the right to force all citizens of a state or the nation to accept subjective arbitrary unprovable opinions, dogmas, and doctrines regarding medical procedures by enacting laws based on biased and prejudiced party line votes that are enforceable on everyone with police force arrests and serious fines and punishments?
No, in my opinion.
It seems to me up to seventy percent or so of Earthian humans around Spaceship Earth believe some fascist dogmas and doctrines, and many true believers believe they have a right or duty to fight, kill if necessary, those who do not believe the opinions, dogmas, and doctrines they do. They believe believing the opinions, dogmas, and doctrines they believe makes them morally and intellectually special and entitles them to outlandish rewards, such as eternal bliss in some sort of heaven.
Trump struts around on stage at political rallies in the US exhorting followers to chant USA! USA! USA! over and over again. The discussant from Canada on Facebook last week taught me what this USA chanting is about. Trump’s supporters are psychologically expressing Trump’s “America First†doctrine while psychologically proving how courageous, patriotic, heroic, superior, and deserving they are. They are psychologically saying We’re OK, but you are Not-OK if you do not believe what we believe. Trump’s America First doctrine is a variant of the Canadian’s Nation First doctrine.
Fascists who took full control of their countries around Spaceship Earth throughout Earthian human history, such as Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Pinochet in recent decades, let their Victims know if they did not submit to, believe, and conform to what they the fascists said they would fine them, beat them up, put them in prison, disappear them, starve them, crucify them, burn them alive at the stake, stone them, and torture them using various sadistic techniques and devices before killing them, which they did with hundreds, thousands, and millions of Earthian humans around Spaceship Earth.
Fascist dictators may have enabled their cronies and followers to experience psychological highs in the beginnings of their regimes, but none of their governments lasted very long in Earthian time. Rationality prevailed, and sooner or later their countries got rid of their true-believer fascist governments.
Unfortunately, fascism is now far from dead around Spaceship Earth despite its track record, and several current pseudo-fascist dictators might blossom into full-blown fascist dictators around Spaceship Earth. Fascism has selling points that appeal to a high percentage of Earthian humans. Its main appeal to lower classes is that it promises opportunities for obedient followers to receive strokes and rewards for memorizing, obeying, and promoting fascist opinions, doctrines, and dogmas, and for doing what they are told by their supposedly-superior supervisors, managers, and commanders. A selling point for upper classes is fascist dictators promising to help them perpetuate their superior social, economic, and political positions.
The Canadian on Facebook caused me to do some research into fascist doctrines. I did a Google internet search, asking Google “What is the Nation First doctrine?†I got ninety-two million results. I read or perused several of them, including an essay written by Mussolini, titled “The Doctrine of Fascism†(1932).
Unlike the barely-literate MAGA red baseball cap-wearing former USian president Donald Trump, Mussolini, assuming he wrote “The Doctrine of Fascism,†was an articulate polished well-read sophisticated thinker and writer. The essay is worth a read (https://sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/The-Doctrine-of-Fascism.pdf ).
The Nation First doctrine the Canadian brought to my attention on Facebook is about as depressing as global warming and climate change (GWCC) and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP).
Here are the last two paragraphs of my recently published novel, As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases:
“As states of affairs worsen in the meantime, relatively-OK Game-free Adult—Adult I’m OK—You’re OK Earthian humans should just say “go jump in the lake†to all hardened Not-OK one-up Parent—Child psychological Game-players, letting them know they will remain Not-OK until their group imagoes, personalities, ego states, transactions, life positions, scripts, Games, and rackets are somehow caused to be more OK.
“If most Earthian humans have become extinct because of global warming or nuclear war as you lie dying, having done what you could to eradicate the probability of imminent human extinction, just say “tough luck†and let the remaining chips fall where they may.â€
Perhaps Earthian humans should start chanting “EARTH!, EARTH!, EARTH!†over and over again at political rallies around Spaceship Earth.
————————————————————————
RICHARD JOHN STAPLETON, PhD, CTA, an emeritus professor of management, consultant, and author, is the founder and editor of the Effective Learning Report and The Earthian. For more on his cultural, educational, and professional experiences go to www.blog.effectivelearning.net.
One thought on “EARTHIAN HUMANS EXPERIENCE LESS OKNESS”
Comments are closed.